A liquid crystal display (LCD) is a kind of flat panel display (FPD) which displays images by the property of the liquid crystal material. In comparison with other display devices, the LCD has the advantages in lightweight, compactness, low driving voltage and low power consumption, and thus has already become the mainstream product in the whole consumer market. However, the liquid crystal material of the LCD cannot emit light by itself, and must depend upon an external light source. Thus, the LCD further has a backlight module to provide the needed light source.
Generally, the backlight module can be divided into two types: a side-light type backlight module and a direct-light type backlight module. In the side-light type backlight module, the light of the light source is emitted into a light guide plate from one side thereof, and is outputted from a top surface thereof by a specific reflection of the light guide plate. On the other hand, the direct-light type backlight module does not include the light guide plate, and outputs the light of the light source through a lower reflective plate and an upper diffusion plate.
The backlight module is assembled by various components, such as a back plate, light sources, a lamp shade, a reflector plate, a light guide plate, a diffusion sheet, a brightness enhancement film and a plastic frame. In general, a liquid crystal panel is assembled on the backlight module, so as to form the LCD module.
Referring now to FIG. 1, a partially exploded perspective view of a traditional LCD module is illustrated, wherein a LCD module 10 substantially comprises a backlight module 11, a liquid crystal panel 12, a front frame 13, a plurality of first screws 14 and a plurality of second screws 15. The backlight module 11 has a plurality of optical films 110 and a plastic frame 111. The plastic frame 111 is a rectangular outer housing, wherein a back plate and a plurality of light sources (not shown) are first received in the plastic frame 111, and then the optical films 110 are disposed on the back plate in the plastic frame 111. Furthermore, the plastic frame 111 has at least one side surface formed with a plurality of first screw holes 112, while the plastic frame 111 further has an upper surface formed with a plurality of second screw holes 113. The liquid crystal panel 12 has a driver circuit board 121 on at least one side thereof, wherein the driver circuit board 121 has a plurality of driver ICs and a plurality of openings 122 formed on suitable positions thereof. The front frame 13 is a rectangular outer frame, and the front frame 13 has an upper surface formed with a plurality of installation holes 131.
In installation, the liquid crystal panel 12 is first disposed on the backlight module 11, and the first screws 14 pass through the openings 122 of the driver circuit board 121 for screw-connecting with the first screw holes 112 formed on the side surface of the plastic frame 111. Subsequently, the front frame 13 is pressed and disposed on the liquid crystal panel 12, and the second screws 15 pass through the installation holes 131 on the upper surface of the front frame 13 for screw-connecting with the second screw holes 113 on the upper surface of the plastic frame 111. Therefore, by using the first screws 14 and the second screws 15, the backlight module 11, the liquid crystal panel 12 and the front frame 13 can be assembled as one-piece to form the LCD module 10.
However, in actual installation, there are still some problems existing in the traditional LCD module 10 described, as follows: Each of traditional mass-produced LCD module 10 needs to develop corresponding size and type of the front frame 13. Moreover, with the continuous increase of types and sizes of LCD panels, the sizes and material of the front frame 13 is also correspondingly increased. Because the front frames 13 with various sizes can not be used in common, new molds for manufacturing the front frame 13 have to be continuously developed, so as to cause the increase of the developing cost. Besides, the front frame 13 is almost made of the steel, that causes the front frame 13 is bigger in the volume and heavier in the weight, and then it is also disadvantage in the compactness design of the LCD module 10.
As a result, it is necessary to provide a liquid crystal display module and a front frame structure thereof to solve the problems existing in the conventional technologies, as described above.